Everywhere You Go
by TimeLady-12
Summary: Fili/OC Amaya Osbourne was shocked to say the least when she ended up in Middle Earth. But things got even stranger when she ended up on an important quest with a company of dwarves. But one thing was for certain, it certainly won't be boring.
1. Chapter One

Chapter One

I blinked and rubbed my eyes. I blinked again. Nope. I was still in the middle of a forest. I forest, may I add, that I had never seen before and for that matter, was no where near a few minutes ago. If it was a few minutes ago.

Maybe I should explain myself. My name is Amaya Osbourne, and I never would have thought that anything interesting would come of my life. Anyway, as I was saying… I'm from the city of York in England. Quite a pleasant city if you live in one of the nicer areas. I, however, had spent the first nineteen years of my life working, either at school, or at one of my jobs I had to pay my university fees. So naturally, it was quite a surprise when I woke up in the middle of a forest when I was previously walking home from work in the middle of a crowded city.

Brushing the dirt off of my jeans, I looked around. Not that it did any good. Everywhere looked the same to me. Trees, trees and more trees. Shrugging, I decided to start walking in a random direction. No use just standing around. I could find out what had happened later.

_Maybe I fell over and was knocked unconscious? _I thought. _Or maybe I'm already home and just dreaming? Although this all feels very real for a dream. Maybe I was kidnapped!_

I must have been walking for a few hours before I finally made any sort of progress. It wasn't exactly the edge of the forest, but I'd stumbled across a little stream, and at least that was something. Kneeling down, I splashed some water on my face before taking a drink. I seriously had no idea how I'd managed to get so filthy from the few hours I'd been here. Then again, I never was a very neat person.

After sitting there for a few more minutes, I finally made a decision. It was starting to get dark, and there was no way I was walking around in the dark. So finding a comfy (or as comfy as it got around here it seems) spot on the ground, I lay down and closed my eyes. Not that it did much good. I was in the middle of a creepy place on my own. Definitely not the most relaxing situation in the world.

Eventually I did manage to drift off to sleep. Unfortunately that only lasted a minute before I heard the faint sound of metal. Incredibly faint, sure, but I heard it none the less. Luckily for me, because when I cracked my eyes open, I was being pointed at with an incredibly long, incredibly _sharp_ sword.

"Woah!" I yelled, backing up slowly. "What the hell?" Standing up, I could now see the wielder of the sword. He seemed quite small. Well, he would have if I hadn't have noticed that I seemed to have shrunk. I only came up to his shoulders. Wasn't that _great. _Looking up, I could see that he seemed to have dropped his sword, something that what a great relief. "Dude!"

"What are you doing here?" he asked. His voice was deep, and seemed to hold a lot of authority.

"Trying to get to sleep." I answered. "Obviously not going so well." I gestured towards his sword.

The man sighed, dropping his sword so it was resting by his leg. "I _meant_, what are you doing in the middle of a forest?"

This time it was my time to sigh. What did he _think_ I was doing in the middle of a forest? "Having a party. What do you think? I got lost." I bit my lip. "Well, not lost exactly. More to the fact that I have no idea where I am. At all."

"I see." I stared at him for about a minute before I realised he wasn't going to say anymore. Before I could sit back down, he began to speak again. "You will come with me."

"Urm…will I now? Because, honestly, I have no idea who you are." To be honest, I was very tempted at this point to run around yelling _stranger danger!_

"Would you rather remain lost in the forest?" he raised an eyebrow.

I paused. He raised a very valid argument. Besides, he had a sword, and if he wanted to kill me, he would have already done so, surely? It wasn't like a posed much of a threat at the moment. "Fine. I suppose…" I drifted off. "I'm Amaya, by the way." His expression didn't change. "…just in case, you… you know…wanted to know."

His mouth lifted up a fraction for a moment, but it was so brief I thought I'd imagined it. "Thorin Oakenshield."

-8-

For the next few days I travelled through the forest with Thorin. I had quickly discovered that he was not very talkative at all, and while I wasn't the most talkative person in the world, I found myself talking a lot more than I would have normally, trying to find out more about the man I was travelling with.

I had discovered that he was a dwarf (something that surprised me as I was at least a head shorter), and was travelling to a small place called the Shire, which obviously, I'd never heard of. Other than that, he didn't reveal much. Although I was grateful none the less for the food and water supply that he had. I was pretty sure I would have starved otherwise.

Instead, I decided to ask general questions; places nearby, places faraway, general history of where I was. (I'd quickly come to the conclusion that I must have been in a different world for dwarves to exist) Each night, when I was going to sleep, my thoughts raced around my head trying to take in and remember as much as possible.

As the days went by, I came to the realization that there was a bigger chance that I would be staying here, and strangely, it didn't bother me. Not at that moment anyway. I didn't really have anything going for me at home. Life was pretty miserable. I started to imagine possibly starting a life here.

After the third day of travelling, we finally came to a clearing in the trees. What I saw was one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. There were hills with little what I assumed were houses judging by the doors and windows in the front, and it was so _green. _Much greener than anything I had ever seen back home. I could see people walking along small pathways from the distance I was at going about their daily business.

"Is this the Shire?" I asked Thorin.

"Yes. Now, I need to go and sort out some supplies for my journey. I think it would be best if you find our host for this evening. My sources tell me that there should be a mark on his door. Look out for that." He started to walk away.

"Wait! Thorin!" He stopped. "How long are you going to be?" I was anxious. I didn't really want to be alone in an unknown place.

"I shouldn't be long." And then he was gone. I sighed and looked around. Well, this place wasn't _too_ big; it shouldn't take too long to find a door with a strange mark. 'Although the mark could look like anything', I thought.

Deciding it would be best if I found this place before it got dark, I set off down the (quite steep it turns out) hill I was standing on. It turns out that I wasn't that far from any (what I still assumed were) houses. I had to admit, these houses were quite cute. The doorways were perfectly round, and I could hear people's voices coming in through the window. Each had a little garden that was kept to perfection, not a blade of grass out of place. Keeping an eye out for any 'marks' on the doors I carried on. I felt quite out of place here, despite the feeling of peace that hung around the place. Walking on, I passed a small woman walking towards me. However it wasn't the slightly alarmed look she gave me (for what reason I had no idea), or the fact that she sped up slightly. It was her feet that slightly freaked me out. They were huge. Huge, big hairy feet that I had certainly never seen before on anyone. Shrugging, I decided to let it go. It was probably normal around here, and I was really in no place to judge anyone here.

It was a few hours later before I started thinking of giving up. There were far more houses here than I had originally thought. Just as the sun was starting to set, I found myself on top of a rather tall hill. Again. Needless to say, I was pretty tired by now. Looking around, I saw a small bench nearby. Going to sit down on it, I groaned. This day was not good. I was completely alone in a strange place, and I could not, for the life of me, find that damn door!

I turned around, trying to get a sense of where I was. What I saw surprised me. There, behind me this whole time, was a door. And on that door, a mark! Now I honestly had no idea if this was the mark I was looking for, but it was the first one I had seen, so it seemed good enough for me. And it definitely looked out of place on the otherwise perfectly painted green door.

Leaping up, I rushed over to the door, and quickly knocked. Thorin was mad if he thought I was going to be staying out here for the night. Only having to wait for a few seconds or so, the door opened and I came face to face with a small man, much the same as the woman I had seen earlier, although…obviously, this person was more…manly, I guess the word was?

He was wearing a patchy dressing gown, and I was happy to say that I was actually a little taller than him!

"Ur…hello." I stuttered. What was I supposed to say?

"Hello."

"Oh! Urm…this is going to sound really strange, but I have no idea where I am and I'm on my own, and I was pretty sure this was where I was told to go, and he said he was going to be here soon and by now I'm probably rambling…so yeah…"

"Right! Well, in that case, you'd better come in." The man looked a bit bewildered by this point.

"Thanks." I smiled. "I'm Amaya. Amaya Osbourne."

"Bilbo Baggins."

-8-

A/N: All right! First chapter. Next up, the rest of the company!

Please review and favourite! :)


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

It turns out I had interrupted Bilbo just when he was finishing his dinner. Fish, by the smell coming in through the kitchen doorway. He quickly rushed out bringing two plates of, indeed, fish. I wasn't to be honest expecting any food. I mean, I'd already basically barged my way into his house; there was no reason at all for him to give me any food. None the less, I was very grateful. My stomach had been rumbling for hours.

"Thanks." I said, sitting down opposite.

"You're welcome." Bilbo replied, giving me a small smile. I could tell he was just as comfortable with this situation as I was. i.e. not very. 'Oh well', I thought, digging into my food. "So," he started. "You said you didn't know where you were. Where are you from?" Thankfully, I was saved giving an answer by the doorbell ringing. Bilbo excused himself and went to answer the door. _Phew_, I thought. What was I supposed to tell him? That I was from this strange world that he probably knew nothing about and was magically transported to this place.

I'd come to the realization when I was outside that this place ('Middle Earth', as Thorin had called it), was vaguely familiar to me. Unfortunately, I could not for the life of me, remember where it was familiar from, so I was back to ground zero. I took small bites of my dinner, trying to make it last.

"Which way, laddie?" I heard a rough voice ask Bilbo. Obviously the person who had rung the doorbell. "Is it down here?"

"I…is what down where?"

"Supper. He said there'd be food, and lots of it."

"H…he said? Who said?"

I turned around to see a large man walk into the room. He had a huge beard, a bald head, and he definitely looked like someone I didn't want to cross. I saw him give a small smirk at the way he was making Bilbo uncomfortable, and proceeded to sit in Bilbo's seat. Giving him a small, polite smile, I went back to my own dinner as the man helped himself to Bilbo's. I looked up to see him eating all of Bilbo's fish, and I don't use the word 'all' lightly. I mean _all_, head and everything. It wasn't that nice to watch if I'm honest.

"Mmmmm…very good this. Any more?" Quickly loosing my appetite (God only _knows _why!), I slid the plate across the table, receiving a mumbled 'cheers lass' in response through the fish that was being devoured again. Bilbo meanwhile had scurried off to retrieve more food, and had now appeared with a plate full of biscuits that he quickly placed on the table.

"Help yourself." He said, stepping back quickly as though he would be wounded by just being near this man. "It's just that…um…I wasn't expecting company." I stifled a laugh. _That _much was obvious. He was about to point something else out (which I assumed would be something equally as obvious) when the bell rang again.

"That'll be the door." Bilbo huffed and shuffled off to see who else had disturbed him this day. "So, lass, what brings you here?" I paused. Partly due to the fact that I hadn't expected him to talk to me, and also because of the fact that I had no idea what to say. What was I _supposed_ to say? I settled with the truth, or as much as I could say without sounding completely mad.

"Well, I got lost in the woods, I think…anyway, I met this guy, and he helped me and told me to wait here until he came back." I thought back on what I said. Yep, completely mad.

"Ah, I see." He chuckled.

"What! Don't judge me. If anything, you owe me. I gave you my dinner." I internally winced.

"You didn't have to." He pointed out. He had me there.

"Yeah, well…shut up." He chuckled (again! I was beginning to think I was brought here to be the amusement of this guy), and walked away to get more food.

"Evening, brother dear." I heard a new voice say. Since when did someone else arrive?

"Oh, by my beard. You are shorter and wider than last we met."

"Wider, not shorter. Sharp enough for both of us." I walked around the corner to see who was talking. I came face to face with someone who was indeed shorter than the first man, although he had a full hair of white hair with a huge beard to match. And he definitely seemed a lot cheerier than his brother. "Ah!" he said, catching sight of me. "And who would this be?"

"Me? Oh, I'm Amaya." I smiled.

"Pleasure to meet you, lass." He smiled back. "I'm Balin, and I'm sure you've already been introduced to my brother, Dwalin." So that was the other man's name! But I went along with it and nodded anyway.

"Uh, excuse me; sorry, I hate to interrupt." Butted in Bilbo. "Ah, but the thing us, I'm not entirely sure you're in the right house." Not surprisingly, he was ignored and the two, I was later informed dwarves, walked into his pantry to search for more food. "It's not that I don't like visitors; I…I like visitors as much as the next Hobbit (So that's what Bilbo was!), but I do like to know them before they come visiting."

"What's this?" asked Dwalin, picking up a huge lump of moldy cheese.

"I don't know…cheese? It's gone blue."

"It's riddled with mold."

"The thing is…" continued Bilbo. "I…I don't know any of you, not in the slightest. I don't mean to be blunt, but I uh…but I had to speak my mind. I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted!" grinned Balin. I walked over to them.

"The cheese is meant to be moldy, you know."

"Really?" they asked. "I find that hard to believe." Snorted Dwalin. "Why would you eat that?"

"Don't ask me. I've never liked it." I shrugged.

"Right. Come on, lass. Let's get some food down ya. You're as thin as a twig!" I rolled my eyes and followed them to the table. I sat down and watched as they brought more and more food onto the table and gathered more chairs for others who I guessed were coming. I was so busy watching these two, I never noticed that two more dwarves had arrived until I noticed that Dwalin and Balin had stopped to greet them. I really needed to start paying more attention.

"Fili, Kili, come on, give us a hand." Dwalin said. I remained seated, not bothering to move from my spot. By this point in the day, I really couldn't be bothered.

"Now hang on a minute, Mister Dwalin, you must introduce us to this lovely young lady." Said one of the new dwarves. I looked up to see the two new additions staring down at me. The darker haired one had a mischievous grin on his face, probably the one who spoke, whereas his brother (I was assuming they were brothers by their very similar sounding names) was staring at me with this weird expression. He had a golden blonde head of hair and was slightly shorter than his brother with more of a beard and a braided moustache. (Which I found strange, but oddly attractive) He was nudged in the ribs by his brother and he quickly snapped out of whatever he was in. "I apologise for my brother, miss. I am Kili and this is my brother Fili."

"Hey." I replied. "I'm Amaya."

"That is a beautiful name, Miss Amaya." Said Fili, walking up and placing a kiss on my hand. I was sure that my face was a dark shade of red by this point.

"Thanks." I mumbled. This was beyond awkward. I wasn't used to _that_ kind of attention, no matter what it was, and I had no idea on how to react. I decided the best course of action was to see what all the noise was in the hallway, and turned to realize there was now a lot more dwarves in Bilbo's house. A lot more. And it was very amusing to watch, partly due to the fact that they were in a massive pile in the front porch. Standing up mumbling, they wasted no time in scattering all over the house, carrying chairs, food, drink, literally anything they could get their hands on, and carrying it into the dining room as if they owned the place.

"How about we introduce you to everyone?" came a voice from behind me. I turned to find that Kili had followed me, a smirk still spread across his face.

"Yeah…that would be…good." I stuttered, a little overwhelmed with all the new company.

"Ok, well, that over there is Oin, there's Gloin, you know Dwalin and Balin I'm assuming, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori, Ori, and the wizard over there is Gandalf." My mouth dropped.

"Wizard? Like, Harry Potter wizard? You know, expecto patronum…that kind of wizard?" By the bewildered look from Kili, and everyone else seated in the dining room which we were back in, I quickly remembered that the people here would have absolutely no idea who or what any or those things were, so I quickly explained myself. "I'm sorry, I mean like, a magic wizard? He can do magic?"

"Of course he can do magic, lass!" said the dwarf with the funny hat. Bofur, I think he was called. "He's a wizard!"

"Right…of course." Duh.

"Come sit over here, Miss Amaya. We got you some food." Baffled, I maneuvered myself over the chairs and dwarves surrounding the table and sat down between Fili and Kili. Looking down at the plate that was pushed in front of me, my eyes widened. The plate was piled sky high full of food. Bread, meat, cheese, you name it, it was probably there. There was no way in hell I was going to eat all this. But, never one to back down from a challenge, I dove right in, causing some of the dwarves around me to chuckle. I could vaguely overhear Bilbo over all the noise.

"No, no, that's Grandpa Mungo's chair! No, I'm sorry; you'll have to take it back please. Take it back…it's antique. Not for sitting on! Thank you. That's a book, not a coaster. Put that map down, thank you."

"I cannot hear what you're saying!" yelled Oin. For most of this part of the night, I was quiet, partly due to the fact that I had no idea what to say, and partly because I was too busy eating. I was also fascinated by the fact that Bombur could catch a bit of food thrown from the other side of the room in his mouth. _Yep, _I thought, _dwarves are cool._

"Who wants an ale?" asked Fili, who had apparently left to make several cups. _I really need to pay more attention. _

"Let him have another drink!" shouted Dwalin.

"Here you go." I was wondering what Dwalin was talking about until I watched him pour the ale down poor Oin's hearing trumpet, making him splutter in anger. Although I had to laugh along with the others. "And one for the lady." Added Fili, gently putting a cup of ale on the table in front of me.

"On the count of three!" Shouted one of the dwarves. I furrowed my eyebrows. What was going on now? "One, two, three!" As soon as the number three was said, all the dwarves sat around the table were immediately quiet and literally poured the ale into their mouths, making it drip all down their beards. Nice… Not to mention that once they'd all finished a competition seemed to start as to who had the loudest burp. Ori, sweet little Ori who had been asking me questions for most of the night, surprisingly won. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bilbo walk away in disgust. I compromised to just sipping my ale.

"So, Miss Amelia, where are you from?" asked Bofur. I looked around to see I had got all of the dwarves' attention.

"Oh! Urm…well…York." As if they knew where that was.

"York? Never heard of it. Is it down south?"

"Uh…not really…it's not really anywhere around here, I don't think." What the hell did that even mean? This answer only peaked the dwarves' interest, and soon I was being bombarded with questions.

"What did you do there?" asked Ori, who was writing everything down in his journal.

"I went to university. And worked as a waitress in my spare time." I chuckled at the confused expressions on their faces.

"What's university?"

"It's somewhere that you go to learn something. For example, I went to study psychology, which is the study of other people- how they behave, interact, think…" The dwarves gave a collective "Ohhhhhh!"

-8-

"Excuse me, that is a doily, not a dishcloth!" shouted Bilbo to Bofur once the meal had finished. Well, once the dwarves had stopped eating anyway. Knowing them, they would probably be back for more food if there was even some left.

"But it's full of holes!"

"It's supposed to look like that, it's crochet."

"Oh, and a wonderful game it is too, if you for the balls for it."

"Bebother and confusticate these dwarves!" I smiled at Bilbo (honestly, it was quite funny watching him argue with these dwarves considering they were both as stubborn as each other), but decided on letting Gandalf handle him. I'd probably end up making him madder, and I'd already learnt that a partially mad Hobbit was scary enough.

"So what do you think of dwarves so far, Miss Amelia?" came a voice from behind me, making me jump.

"Fili! You scared me." His grin didn't falter. "Well… you are certainly…different."

"Good different, though?"

"Of course." I smiled. Jesus, a full conversation with this guy without sounding like a complete prat! One point to me.

"I have to admit though, when I first saw you, I thought you were a dwarf. I mean, you're definitely the size of one."

"So why don't you now?"

He chuckled. Did anything this dwarf did not sound amazing? I was beginning to think not. "Well, besides the fact that you have no idea about anything from around here, you are far to hairless to be a dwarf." His hand skimmed my chin. "Not that that's a bad thing of course."

"Wait. Women dwarves have beards?"

"Yes." He laughed at the shocked expression on my face.

"And you like that?"

"Well, each to their own. Most dwarves don't court anyway, too engrossed in their work to think of that sort of thing. And a dwarf only loves once. When you see the right person, you know it." His eyes softened when he said that. I wondered if he had met someone back home, and wondered about the disappointed feeling I had at the thought. "But there are barely any dwarf women. Only about a third of our population are female. It's sometimes hard to tell who are women and who are men, they look so alike!" We both laughed at that. "What's it like where you're from?"

"Oh! Very different to what you're used to, I'm sure. People don't really get together because they love each other, I guess. I'm not really sure how it all works; I was never one for relationships." Fili nodded as if he was in deep thought, and then the grin returned.

"Well, I'm sure that they were not good enough for you. Come, sanâzyung." He led me to the doorway of the dining room, before stepping over to Ori, Bilbo and Gandalf. I was confused as to what he called me. Was it in some sort of Dwarf language? And what did it mean?

"Excuse me." Said Ori to Bilbo. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but what should I do with my plate?"

"Here you go, Ori, give it to me." Fili took the plate from Ori and threw it across the room to Kili, shooting me a wink. I cursed myself when I blushed. Kili then threw the plate behind his back to Bifur who was standing by the sink, and caught it without even looking. Will dwarves ever cease to amaze me tonight? Suddenly, there were plates and utensils flying everywhere, and the dwarves sitting at the table started creating a beat with their fists and spare utensils.

"Excuse me!" shouted Bilbo, over all the noise. "That's my mother's West Farthing crockery; it's over a hundred years old! And can-can you not do that? You'll blunt them!"

"Ooh, d'hear that, lads?" teased Bofur. "He says we'll blunt the knives!" Then, suddenly, I felt as if I was in some messed up version of High School Musical involving dwarves, as they all began to sing:

_Blunt the knives, bend the forks_

_Smash the bottles and burn the corks_

_Chip the glasses and crack the plates_

_That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!_

_Cut the cloth and tread on the fat_

_Leave the bones on the bedroom mat_

_Pour the milk on the pantry floor_

_Splash the wine on every door_

_Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl_

_Pound them up with a thumping pole_

_When you've finished, if any are whole_

_Send then down the hall to roll_

_That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!_

By the end of the song, my cheeks were hurting from grinning so much, and I was clapping along with everyone else. Well, everyone but Bilbo, who still did not look very impressed. Looking into the kitchen, I saw that all of the dishes were clean and neatly piled by the sink. That was so cool. I walked over to Fili and Kili.

"Nice song. You should start a band." They laughed and we walked into the hallway, when suddenly, there were three loud knocks on the door making everyone fall silent.

"He is here." Said Gandalf. _That better be Thorin,_ I thought to myself.

-8-

A/N: All right! So, the company has arrived! And a nice big update! The next one shouldn't be too long!

Please review and favourite!


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

It was Thorin. Thank God! It wasn't that I didn't enjoy the company I was currently in- they were certainly a friendly bunch- but it was nice to see the first person that had actually helped me first in this world. Having saying that, he didn't look like he was in the 'helping' mood. Particularly because of the scowl that was on his face at the particular moment.

"Gandalf." He said. "I thought you said this place would be easy to find. I lost my way, twice. Wouldn't have found it al all had it not been for that mark on the door." Ha! So it wasn't just me that had trouble finding this place! I knew it.

"Mark?" exclaimed Bilbo, pushing his way through the mass of dwarves that had gathered in front of him, and in front of me. "There's no mark on that door. It was painted a week ago!"

"There is a mark; I put it there myself." Countered Gandalf. "Bilbo Baggins, allow me to introduce the leader of our company, Thorin Oakenshield."

"So this is the Hobbit. Tell me, Mr Baggins, have you done much fighting?" I didn't envy Bilbo at the moment. The look of intense…well, intenseness, Thorin was giving Bilbo was enough to make anyone squirm.

"Pardon me?"

"Axe or sword? What's your weapon of choice?"

"Well, I have some skill at conkers, if you must know, but I fail to see why that's relevant." I stifled a snort.

"Thought as much. He looks more like a grocer than a burglar." Seeing Thorin about to walk into the next room, I scurried through the hoard of dwarves, which let me tell you, was very hard to push through!

"Oy!" I shouted, much to the surprise of the other dwarves. Guess I hadn't remembered to tell them that I knew Thorin. Oh well. "You better not have forgotten about me!" I mean, come on. He'd been the one to tell me to come here in the first place. Thorin turned around with a partially amused look on his face. I guess that's all you really got from him. Well, it was good enough.

"How could I forget about you?" he replied, obviously thinking of the times when I had not shut up when I was walking with him in the forest. I knew I'd rubbed off on him! He's already using sarcasm! "Anyway, I see you found your way here."

"Yeah, after about a day of searching." I muttered, trailing after him into the dining room.

"You've been looked after well?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah! I've had the time of my life." Thorin rolled his eyes and sat at the head of the table, obviously seeing as he was the head of this company, while the rest of us sat mainly where we had sat before, me next to Fili and Kili.

"How do you know Uncle Thorin?" asked Kili, listening to our conversation.

"He's your uncle?" I spluttered.

"Yes." Replied Kili, puffing out his chest, obviously feeling very proud of that fact.

"That must be…fun." Fun? Seriously? What was I saying?

"I know he doesn't seem like it, but he does have a soft side. After our father died when we were younger, he acted as our father figure, and we couldn't wish for better." Explained Fili. "But you haven't answered Kili's question. How do you know Uncle?"

"Oh! Well, remember me saying that I was lost in the woods and a guy found me and directed me here?" They nodded. "That was Thorin. He told me to find this place and wait until he came. I had no idea what I was expecting to be honest." I chuckled nervously. I was crap at explaining things, I swear to God. "Definitely not a bunch of rowdy dwarves, that's for sure! We don't even have dwarves where I come from."

"There are no dwarves?" asked Ori, pulling his book out again. It seemed most of the others were listening to our conversation. I guess privacy wasn't a big thing now. And it was must be weird to hear of a world where you don't exist.

"No…they only exist in stories and fairytales." The looks of outrage from the others suggested I'd offended them. Oops. "We only have humans…well, I guess you'd say the race of Man."

"Strange…"

-8-

"What news from the meeting in Ered Luin? Did they all come?" asked Balin, once Thorin had been given some food from Bilbo.

"Aye. Envoys from all seven kingdoms." The dwarves murmured their joy. I guess that was a good thing?

"What do the dwarves of the Iron Hills say? Is Dain with us?"

"They will not come." The dwarves now moaned. I joined in.

"What are you doing?" asked Fili.

"Joining in. That was bad news right?" He just shook his head, looking amused.

"They say this quest is ours, and ours alone." Continued Thorin.

"You're going on a quest?" squeaked Bilbo.

"Yeah." I echoed, hoping, finally, that I would discover what Thorin was planning. "You're going on a quest?"

"Bilbo, my dear fellow, let us have a little more light." Said Gandalf. Bilbo hurried off and quickly returned with a medium sized lamp. "Far to the east, over ranges and rivers, beyond woodlands and wastelands, lies a single solitary peak." The wizard certainly was dramatic.

"The Lonely Mountain?" asked Bilbo, reading off a piece of parchment in front of Thorin.

"Aye." Spoke up Gloin. "Oin has read the portents, and the portents say it is time."

"Ravens have been seen flying back to the mountain as it was foretold: When the birds of yore return to Erebor, the reign of the beast will end."

"What beast?" asked Bilbo. _Beast_. I knew this world seemed too good to be true. Beautiful woodlands, good looking guys (not that I was thinking of Fili, oh no!), but there was always a catch!

"Well, that would be a reference to Smaug the Terrible, chiefest and greatest calamity of our age." Informed Bofur, obviously not being very helpful for the Hobbit considering how his skin got paler by several shades. I wasn't happy with the facts he was saying either, but at least I remained rather calm; at least on the outside. "Airbourne fire-breather, teeth like razors, claws like meathooks, extremely fond of precious metals…"

"Yes, I know what a dragon is." Interrupted Bilbo. Great, a dragon. Anything else I needed to know?

"I'm not afraid!" exclaimed Ori, standing up, looking determined. "I'm up for it. I'll give him a taste of the Dwarfish iron right up his jacksie!"

"Sit down!" hissed Dori, pulling his younger brother back into his seat. I looked at him and gave him a small smile, to which he blushed and looked away.

"The task would be difficult enough with an army behind us." Said Balin. "But we number just thirteen, and not thirteen of the best, nor brightest."

"Ah, ever the optimist…" I muttered. I heard Fili and Kili laugh.

"What did he say?" asked Oin. I wasn't sure whether he was joking or not, but when he pulled an ear trumpet out, I figured not.

"We may be few in number, but we're fighters, all of us, to the last dwarf!" encouraged Fili, trying to give an encouraging look to the others. It…sort of worked. I swear, so far this dwarf was pretty much perfect, and I felt like I'd known him for years. Which was odd, considering I mainly avoided people in my world. Far too much hassle. And I didn't like them. At all.

"Nice little speech." I said, turning to face him. "Very inspiring."

"Well I try." We laughed.

"And you forget!" added Kili, sending me a little smirk while I was talking to his brother. I glared at him. "We have a wizard in our company. Gandalf will have killed hundreds of dragons in his time."

"Oh, well, now, uh, I…I…I wouldn't say that, I…" The wizard spluttered.

"How many then?" demanded Dori.

"Uh, what?"

"Well, how many dragons have you killed? Go on, give us a number!"

"Hmm…" Then the arguing started. All the dwarves getting to their feet arguing about Lord only knows what! It was rather amusing to be honest. Some of them were getting rather red in the face.

"What have you started?" I asked Kili, who was looking as amused as I felt as he looked around.

"I didn't say anything! It was Dori that pushed the subject, not me."

"Yes, but you started it." I gave him my 'point proven' face, which was just me smirking and raising my eyebrows in a rather smug manner, before turning back around.

"Shazara!" shouted Thorin, in some language to which I had no clue what he was saying. It seemed to work though as the room became silent and the dwarves settled down. "If we have read these signs, do you not think others will have read them too? Rumours have begun to spread. The dragon Smaug has not been seen for 60 years. Eyes look east to the mountain, assessing, wondering, weighing the risk. Perhaps the vast wealth of our people now lies unprotected. Do we sit back while others claim what is rightfully ours? Or do we seize this chance to take back Erebor? Du Bekâr! Du Bekâr!" The dwarves cheered, while all I could think was, _that speech had to rehearsed._

"You forget." Said Balin. "The front gate is sealed. There is no way into the mountain." Way to be a kill joy.

"That, my dear Balin, is not entirely true." Replied Gandalf. Quite slowly if you ask me, Gandalf reached into his cloak and pulled out a rather old looking key on a long chain. It must have been pretty important judging from the awed look on Thorin's face.

"How came you by this?"

"It was given to me by your father, by Thrain, for safekeeping. It is yours now."

"If there is a key, there must be a door." Stated Fili, looking excited.

"These runes speak of a hidden passage to the lower hills."

"There's another way in!" shouted Kili. _No shit Sherlock. _

"Well, if we can find it, but dwarf doors are invisible when closed. The answer lies hidden somewhere in this map and I do not have the skill to find it." I let out a 'disappointed' sigh at this, which received a glare from the wizard in question. "But there are others in Middle-Earth who can. The task I have in mind will require a great deal of stealth, and no small amount of courage. But, if we are careful and clever, I believe it can be done."

"That's why we need a burglar." Inputted Ori.

"Hmm…a good one, too." Agreed Bilbo. "An expert, I'd imagine."

"And are you?" asked Gloin.

"Am I what?"

"He said he's an expert!" said Oin, clearly not hearing what the Hobbit had said. Several other dwarves laughed at Bilbo's face.

"M…me? No, no, no, no, no. I'm not a burglar; I've never stolen a thing in my life!"

"I'm afraid I have to agree with Mr. Baggins. He's hardly burglar material." Said Balin. I saw Bilbo nodding in agreement.

"Aye. The wild is no place for gentlefolk who can neither fight nor fend for themselves." I saw Dwalin give me a look as he said that.

"Hey! I am perfectly capable of looking after myself!" I exclaimed. God knows I'd been doing it for long enough.

"He's not saying your not, lass." Said Balin. "But you are a woman, and…"

"And? What has that got to do with anything?"

"The wilderness is not place for a woman such as yourself."

"Excuse me…!"

"Enough!" boomed Gandalf, seeing to get a lot bigger and dim all the lights in the room. "If I say that Bilbo Baggins is a burglar, then a burglar he is." He shrunk back to his original height. "Hobbits are remarkably light on their feet. In fact, they can pass unseen by most if they choose. And while the dragon is accustomed to the smell of dwarf, the scent of hobbit is all but unknown to him, which gives us a distinct advantage. You asked me to find the fourteenth member of this company, and I have chosen Mr Baggins. There's a lot more to him than appearances suggest, and he's got a great deal more to offer than any of you know, including himself. You must trust me on this." He seemed to take a big breath in and out. "As for Miss Osbourne. I am not sure of her coming. However, I see a lot of potential in her. Nonetheless, it is Thorin's decision."

"She comes." Said Thorin, giving me a look saying we'll talk later. I'd learnt to interpret his many 'looks' throughout the few days of travelling with him in the forest. "And very well. As for the Hobbit, we will do it your way."

"No, no, no!" piped up Bilbo, now that the attention had turned to him again.

"Give him the contract."

"Please!"

"Alright, we're off!" exclaimed Bofur.

Balin handed Bilbo a huge contract. Damn it if I had to read one of those. "It's just the usual summary of out-of-pocket expenses, time required, remuneration, funeral arrangements, so forth."

"Funeral arrangements?" squeaked Bilbo. "Let's see…terms: cash on delivery, up to but not exceeding one fourteenth of total profit, if any. Seems fair. Eh, present company shall not be liable for injuries inflicted by or sustained as a consequence thereof including but not limited to lacerations…evisceration…incineration?"

"Oh, aye." Enthused Bofur. "He'll melt the flesh off your bones in the blink of an eye."

"Huh." Bilbo looked a little breathless by this point. Poor thing. I wasn't entirely happy with what Bofur was saying, (what sane person would be) but Bilbo did not look comfortable in the slightest. I found myself leaning into Fili as the _very nice_ description of this dragon carried on.

"You all right, laddie?" asked Balin.

"Uh, yeah…feel a bit faint."

"Think furnace with wings." Carried on Bofur.

"Air, I…I…I need air."

"Flash of light, searing pain, then, poof! You're nothing more than a pile of ash!" Bilbo's breathing got heavier, and just when he looked like he was going to be okay…

"Hmmmm…nope." …He fainted.

"Ah, very helpful Bofur." Said Gandalf.

"Are you ok, Miz Sanâzyung?" asked Fili, looking down at me. I gave him a confused look. "You look a little pale."

"Do I? Oh. Well, I'm fine. Just…dragons, you know?"

"Haha, yeah. It can do that to you." Soon, conversation started amongst the dwarves again as Gandalf made Bofur help him move Bilbo into this armchair.

Things just got a whole lot more interesting…

A/N: Yay! An update! Please remember to favourite and review!

Next chapter means the start of he journey!


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

It'd been a few minutes since Bilbo had fainted in the middle of the hallway, and now he was sitting in his armchair holding a mug full of tea and looking very troubled. Honestly, he really was going for the brooding look tonight.

I, meanwhile, had remained in my seat nibbling of a piece of buttered bread (which was _very_ nice, in case you wanted to know) thinking about what had just been revealed. I mean, never in my life would I have thought that I would be involved in a quest to go slay a dragon or whatever it was they were going to do. Obviously dragons didn't exist in my world, so this was all a bit of a culture shock. Were dragons a common thing here? Was Smaug one of those nice dragons like in those cartoon films? Obviously not Amaya. What is this, A Very Potter Musical where you can just sing the dragon to sleep?

"Amaya." I looked up, shaking myself from my thoughts, and saw Thorin standing by the door.

"I'll be right back." I said to Fili and Kili. Hopping over various chairs and legs, I finally managed to reach Thorin. He led me to an empty room- I assumed it was the main living room as there was a sofa and a very warm looking fireplace. I sat down next to Thorin on the sofa and waited for him to speak.

"I'm not going to make you come with us." He started. "I will not lie, it will be a dangerous journey. But I am also not comfortable with leaving you here. Knowing you, you would probably burn down the Hobbit's house in a matter of minutes of us leaving you."

"Hey! I would no…" Thorin raised his eyebrows. "Okay, maybe you have a point. But if you think I'm not coming, you've got another thing coming. I just have one question."

"And what would that be?"

"What are we actually going to do?"

"We are going to reclaim our homeland."

"And I'm assuming that's the 'Erebor' you were talking about earlier?"

"Yes."

"Ah." We drifted off into a slightly awkward silence before Balin stepped into the room. "I'll just…walk over here…" I said, shuffling back into the kitchen. From the corner of my eye I saw Bilbo in a heated conversation with Gandalf before stalking out of the room towards the other end of his house.

"What did Uncle want to talk to you about?" asked Kili, once I had sat down again. Nosy, these dwarves, weren't they?

"Just…I don't know, making sure I knew what I was getting myself into, I guess. Making sure I wanted to go with you guys."

"And do you? You're not staying here, are you?" asked Fili. I furrowed my eyebrows. "I mean, because…what with the Hobbit coming and you not knowing anyone else, and…"

"Fili! It's okay, I'm coming. Relax." He grinned sheepishly. "So where is Erebor, then?"

"Far to the east. Across the misty mountains, through the forest of Mirkwood."

"So they'll be a lot of walking?"

"Probably." I groaned. Seriously? Walking? I hated walking. Running, swimming, cycling, I could live with. But I hated walking. "What's wrong? Upset about a little walking?" I smacked him.

-8-

We eventually all moved into the living room where I had been talking to Thorin. I was sat on the floor leaning against Fili's legs while the dwarves were sitting there smoking their pipes. Honestly, I did not find that pleasant in the least. I hated smoking at home, and I hated it here. At least these pipes didn't smell as bad as cigarettes.

I was actually wondering why they were all being so quiet (this seemed very unlikely for them!), before I heard the start of music and Thorin beginning to sing.

_Far over the misty mountains cold_

_To dungeons deep, and caverns old_

_We must away ere break of day_

_To seek the pale enchanted gold._

The other dwarves joined in.

_The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,_

_While hammers fell like ringing bells_

_In places deep, where dark things sleep,_

_In hollow halls beneath the fells._

_For ancient king and elvish lord,_

_There many a gleaming golden hoard_

_They shaped and wrought, and light they caught_

_To hide in gems on hilt of sword._

_On silver necklaces they strung_

_The flowering stars, on crowns they hung_

_The dragon-fire, in twisted wire_

_They meshed the light of moon and sun._

_Far over the misty mountains cold_

_To dungeons deep and caverns old_

_We must away, ere break of day,_

_To claim our long-forgotten gold._

_Goblets they carved there for themselves_

_And harps of gold; where no man delves_

_There lay they long, and many a song_

_Was sung unheard by men or elves_

_The pines were roaring on the height,_

_The winds were moaning in the night._

_The fire was red, it flaming spread;_

_The trees like torches blazed with light._

_The bells were ringing in the dale_

_And men looked up with faces pale;_

_Then dragon's ire more fierce than fire_

_Laid low their towers and houses frail. _

_The mountain smoked beneath the moon;_

_The dwarves, they heard the tramp of doom._

_They fled their hall to dying fall_

_Beneath his feet, beneath the moon._

_Far over the misty mountains grim_

_To dungeons deep and caverns dim_

_We must away, ere break of day,_

_To win our harps and gold from him!_

By the end of the song I was struggling to keep my eyes open. Not because it was boring. It's just I never would have thought that this bunch of dwarves would be able to sing a song so beautiful, with so much pain in their voices. It was at this moment that I truly appreciated how much this quest meant to them. How much suffering and pain them and their people had gone through.

With these thoughts in mind, I eventually drifted off to sleep, smiling as I almost didn't notice hands running through my hair brushing it back.

-8-

I woke the next morning feeling a lot warmer than I had when I had fallen asleep. There was only one problem. As much as I wanted to find out the reason, I could not be bothered to open my eyes. I had this problem most mornings. I loved sleeping in, and it was a very unfortunate thing that I barely ever got any lie-ins. I had a feeling this would become a more common occurrence over the next few months.

Deciding that I had better get up, (best to stay on the dwarves' good side) I opened my eyes to see that it was someone's coat that had been laid over me in the night. It looked like a nice coat. It had fur along the collar, and was certainly warm. Very warm, actually. Shrugging it off, I stood up and folded it across my arms. I looked around the room. Huh, empty. Guess they'd started breakfast without me. Bit rude.

Shuffling into the kitchen (it took me a while to completely wake up), I noticed that the dwarves were actually walking in and out of the hobbit hole, gathering various possessions and packing them in their bags.

"Ah!" came a voice to my left. "She awakens! I see you have my brother's coat."

"Kili!" I turned. "I…ur…I was just…"

"No need to explain." He smirked. "I gather that you're looking for my brother."

"Actually I was looking for breakfast." My stomach, with excellent timing, decided to rumble very loudly.

"Here ya go, lass." Said Bombur, passing me a plate full of bacon, eggs and bread. I guess he was the cook in the company. Where he found this food was a mystery to me. I'd seen Bilbo's cupboards last night, and they looked pretty empty to me. Not that I was complaining that there was more food.

"So where's Bilbo?" I asked through a mouthful of food. "I haven't seen him around."

"Still sleeping, I presume." Replied Kili, who was attempting to take a piece of my bacon from my plate.

"So he's not coming?" I swatted his hand away. I have to say, I would be quite disappointed if Bilbo didn't come. Like me, he probably didn't know how to fight, and it would be nice to talk to him about more leisurely things on the journey.

"It doesn't look like it. But you never know."

"Mmm." Finishing my food, I put the plate in the sink and wandered around to the front of the house where various ponies were now waiting. "Bofur!" I shouted, hurrying over to where the dwarf was attaching various bags to a pony. "Have you seen Fili?"

"Well, he was over there a few minutes ago with Thorin, but I'm not sure about now."

"Right…" Now I was at a bit of a loss.

"How about I introduce you to the ponies?" I spent the next few minutes being introduced to the ponies that we were going to ride, which I wasn't thrilled about. I didn't dislike horses or ponies per say, but I wasn't overly fond of them either.

"Amaya!" I heard a voice say from behind. I turned around to see Fili walking over. How did he look so good this early in the morning? "I was wondering where you'd gone. Still got my coat, I see."

I blushed. "Oh! Well, uh…yeah. Uh, here." I stammered, holding it out. Fili laughed and folded it over his arm. "Thanks for…uh…letting me use it. It's very warm."

"It's my pleasure. Anyway, we're leaving in a few minutes. Have you got all of your things?"

I pretended to think for a while. "Well considering I'm currently wearing all of my things, I'd say so." Damn, that bummed me out. I was literally broke.

"Oh! That reminds me, Thorin thinks that it'd be best if you wore something a bit different. Your current attire isn't really suitable for long distance travelling." It was true. I doubted my jeans would be comfy in a few hours when I'd been on a pony for hours on end, and my vest top wasn't very weather resistant to say the least. And I was fairly certain that my clothes would be very strange here. I'm surprised that none of the dwarves had asked me about it to be honest. Only one problem…

"I don't have anything else to wear."

"I figured that, so I found some spare clothes of mine. What I don't have, I found from the others. They'll have to do for now."

"Thanks." Giving him a quick grin, I ran into the bathroom to change. I found that Fili had gathered a tunic, a pair of trousers, a belt which I had to position so it held up my trousers and gave me some sort of shape under my tunic (I was still a female, I wanted to attempt to look like one), and a pair of boots that were a bit big for me. I put all of my old clothes in a bag; I wasn't prepared to let go of the only things I had of my world just yet. Quickly putting my hair in a fishtail braid with the band on my wrist, I returned back outside and saw that all of the others were already outside waiting beside their ponies.

"Ready lass?" asked Bofur. "We're about set to go."

"Yep!" I replied, determined to at least start the journey in a good mood. I looked around again. It seemed like Bilbo wasn't coming. Now which pony was mine…

"Amaya." Came a voice to my left. "You'll be riding with me." I looked up to see Fili sitting on top of the pony. "If that's okay, of course. I mean, you could join someone else, or…"

"Fili! It's fine." He gave what looked like a relieved smile, and held out a hand to help me up. I jumped up to sit in front of him on the pony, and soon we were off. We sat for a while, Fili holding the reigns around me while I looked around at the scenery. It was a fairly relaxing start to the journey although, around two hours into it, I felt him rummaging around behind me, and something being draped around my shoulders. I peered around to see a cloak- _ahem_, Fili's cloak might I add- around me. "Fili, this is your cloak."

He laughed. "Well done. You're very observational. But don't worry, miz sanâzyung. It's my spare. I noticed you getting a bit chilly. That tunic isn't very warm."

"Huh. Well, thanks." I blushed. Seriously, I really needed to stop blushing around this guy. At least I had my face turned forward so he couldn't see. However, Kili did, and he was currently wiggling his eyebrows and smirking. God, help me.

A/N: okay, so I've actually had this written for a while, but my laptop broke, and I had no way of posting it, so…sorry for the wait!

But, more Fili/Amaya fluff coming up, so yay!

Please favourite and review!


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

**Obi-wan's girl forever-** glad you're enjoying the story! And no, I haven't uploaded a story with Amaya before :)

Thanks to everyone else who's enjoying the story, and thanks for **Marina Oakenshield, xSiriuslyPadfoot** and **aireagle92** for reviewing!

-8-

"So there aren't any dwarves in your world?" asked Ori, scribbling in his notebook. I sighed. For the past half an hour I'd been bombarded with questions from the dwarves about where I was from. I'd tried to explain, with much difficulty that I was from a world that was completely different to here, and I hadn't even begun to talk about the technology yet. I'd have to explain about electricity and all that first to allow them to even begin to understand what I was talking about, and I was trying to save that for a day when I was more awake.

"No." I replied, leaning back subconsciously onto Fili. "We only have humans…urm…the race of Man, I guess you'd call it here, or whatever. No Elves, dwarves, dragons…none of them are real. Although, we do have a lot of fairytales and stories about them. The Elves and the Shoemaker…Snow White and the Seven Dwarves…"

"Snow White and the Seven Dwarves?!" cried several of the dwarves, seeming aghast at the idea. "What is that ab…" But Dwalin was cut off by a faint voice shouting,

"Wait! Wait!" I smiled. It seemed Bilbo had come, and Fili and Kili had won the bet that had been made about an hour ago on whether he was going to turn up. Considering the fact that I had none of my own possessions, I certainly had no money to bet with, and had no ambitions to be in debt to anyone more than necessary. Fili and Kili had offered me a bit of gold for it, but I was already in debt to them with the clothes they'd lent me; I refused to be in any more. The company slowed their ponies to a stop. "I signed it!"

Bilbo had finally managed to catch up, and was handing over the contract to Balin who inspected it with a pocket-glass.

"Everything appears to be in order." He said, smiling at the Hobbit. "Welcome, Master Baggins, to the company of Thorin Oakenshield." I gave him an encouraging smile.

"Give him a pony." Commanded Thorin, who unlike the others, was not smiling. In fact, he didn't look pleased at all as he turned his pony and prepared to ride on.

"No, no, no, no, that-that won't be necessary." Stuttered Bilbo. "Thank you, but I…I'm sure I can keep up on foot. I…I…I've done my fair share of walking holidays, you know. I even got as far as Frogmorton once…wagh!" Through all of Bilbo's rambling, Bilbo had failed to notice Fili and Kili ride behind him and pull him up onto the spare pony, and it was safe to say that he looked highly uncomfortable on it.

"Cheer up Bilbo. It gets better. Just give it a few days, and you'll love it!" I said, not believing a word I said. He didn't turn to look at me. In fact, he gave a huge sigh and slumped as low as he could go without falling before realizing that got him closer to the pony where he sat up as straight as he could go.

"Amaya." Said Fili, in my ear. (I won't deny, this gave me shivers…) "I'd duck if I were you." I gave him a confused look before doing as he said. A moment later, a sack of money was thrown over my head and into Fili's hands. "Ok, it's fine now." I smiled, and sat up.

"What's that about?" asked Bilbo to Gandalf, who looked like he was thoroughly enjoying the Hobbit's confusion.

"Oh, they took wagers on whether or not you'd turn up. Most of them bet that you wouldn't."

"What did you think?"

"Hmmm?" Replied Gandalf, before a sack of money flew his way. "My dear fellow, I never doubted you for a second."

Bilbo's reply, however, was interrupted by him sneezing. "Ohh. All this horse hair, I'm having a reaction." He felt frantically in his pockets. "No, no, wait, wait, stop! Stop! We have to turn around!"

I looked at him, confused. What could he have forgotten?

"What on earth is the matter?" asked Gandalf.

"I forgot my handkerchief." I rolled my eyes. Honestly, he needed to sort out his priorities.

"Here!" shouted Bofur, tearing a strip of cloth from his clothing. "Use this." From the disgusted look on Bilbo's face, it was obvious he was not amused. The dwarves however, were laughing as Thorin gave the command to move on.

"You'll have to manage without pocket-handkerchiefs and a good many other things, Bilbo Baggins, before we reach our journey's end. You were born to the rolling hills and little rivers of the Shire, but home is now behind you; the world is ahead." Said Gandalf.

"Miss Amaya." Came a voice to my left. I turned to see Ori looking at my with a very timid look on his face. "You never told us that story." I groaned. Something told me they would not like it one bit.

-8-

"How could you listen to stories like that!?" cried Dwalin. I'd just finished telling the company the story, and it was safe to say they were not amused.

"It's not my fault!" I shot back. "Besides, where I'm from, they're not at all offensive to anyone. It's not like dwarves exist, as I kept trying to remind you every time you interrupted me with a complaint!"

"Well there was a lot to complain about! Honestly, a dwarf called Grumpy…"

"Well it definitely suits you at the moment…" I muttered back. I heard Fili chuckle behind me.

"Well, it was a pretty bad story." He defended when I turned to look at him.

"It's not my job to tell stories, though! I normally listen to people, not talk to them. That's why I wanted to be a psychiatrist. I get socially awkward. And you did ask to hear it."

"Uh huh." I glared before facing forward again. The company carried on in silence for the next few minutes. It was getting towards noon, and we stopped briefly to have a bit of lunch (Which was quite disappointing after the food we'd had at Bilbo's) before setting off again.

After riding for a few more hours, I began to grow bored. Sure, this place was beautiful with the trees, and the hills and, well…the entire scenery really. But there is only so much you can take before it all starts to look the same. Add that to the fact that my bum and my thighs were beginning to hurt, and I was definitely not looking forward to riding a pony every day.

"I miss my iPod." I sighed. To be honest, sitting in silence was never something I ever did. I always had some form of music on in the background.

"What's that?" asked Kili, who was riding beside us.

"It's like…a small machine that plays music. I used to take it everywhere with me. It's weird to not have it." I explained.

"Don't you sing your own songs then? Make your own music?"

"Trust me, you wouldn't want to hear me sing. I sound awful."

"You can't be that bad." Said Fili.

"Oh, I am. And I won't prove it, you wouldn't want me to."

"If you insist." Laughed Fili. "So, Amaya, why don't you tell us more about where you're from?"

"Oh, well, as I've already told you, I'm from York. It's quite a big city, quite old. I mean, I've lived there all my life, so it's kind of boring; I've been everywhere. I was hoping that after I finished my degree I could leave, but that wasn't going to be for another year, so…"

"How long do these 'degrees' take?" asked Bilbo, who had joined us. He seemed quite interested to learn about different people's cultures and things like that. It make a difference from depressed Bilbo that had been present for most of what I'd seen.

"It varies depending on what degree your doing. There's thousand to choose from. Mine only took three years, so I would have been graduated…uh, finished it, by the time I was twenty." I saw the dwarves freeze on their ponies.

"Lass." Said Bofur, slowly. "How old are you, exactly?"

"Don't you know that you should never ask a woman her age?" I joked. "But if you must know, I'm nineteen. My birthday was a couple of months ago. Why? Why do you all look so shocked? Some of you can't be much older! Kili only looks a few years older than me!"

"Amaya, I'm 77." Said Kili. "I had to convince Uncle to let me come along. I'm considered young by many. Gloin's son Gimli was even considered too young to come, and he's quite a number of years older than you." I gaped at him. No way was Kili 77 years old. He looked barely older than 26 at the most.

"But…" I turned around to face Fili. "You're older then, right? I mean, you're the older brother?" He nodded. "So how old are you?"

"I'm 82." He replied. 82. Fili was 82. Great, I was crushing on an old man.

"Okay. Right. So, if you're 82, and I'm guessing that's still young, right?" He nodded again. "So how long do dwarves live, then?"

"Around 250 years." I gaped. Obviously I had a lot to learn.

"So I must be like, a child to all of you. But! Before you say anything, I just want to say that I'm an adult in my world. I have been for over a year, so don't treat me any differently, please." Some of the dwarves turned back around after this to carry on their previous conversations, looking a bit unsettled at this new bit of information.

"Amaya?"

"Yes Fili?"

"Can I ask a question?"

"You just did, but sure, ask another one."

"Right, well, how long do people from your world generally live to? It's just, you seemed so shocked we lived so long, I just wondered…"

"Life expectancy where I come from is normally around 80 years old." Fili's face dropped. "What is it?"

"Nothing, it's just…80 years old isn't…that's young to us I guess…"

"Yeah, well. I've changed since I've come here. So, it might not be the same. I'll have to ask Gandalf about it, see if he knows." That seemed to cheer Fili up a little.

"Really? How have you changed?"

"Not by much. All I've seemed to have done is shrink a couple of feet, and I have no idea why."

"Well, if it's any consolation, I think it's a much better height."

-8-

After several more hours of riding, through which Fili had told me many embarrassing stories about Kili's younger days (Kili had assured me he would get his brother back sooner or later) which made the afternoon pass rather quickly. Eventually, the sun began to set, and Thorin had to admit that they make camp for the night. Bombur's stomach was beginning to rumble so loudly that we could hear it near the back of the company.

We ended up on the edge of a cliff (I was quite pleased at this point that I was ok with heights), and the dwarves wasted no time in starting a fire and getting Bombur to cook a stew with some meat that Kili had caught earlier while riding.

"Can I help at all?" I asked Bombur, once he started getting out a big enough pan. I didn't want to become a burden. I would have to ask for some training with a sword, or at least the basics on how to fight, sooner rather than later. I wasn't keen on dying in the first spot of danger.

"Aye lass, if you're offering. You can chop these vegetables and put them in the pot when you're done." I set to work chopping the potatoes and carrots I'd been given, thinking that I better not get used to this, and that the food would probably run out sooner or later. I'd seen enough movies to know that that kind of thing always happens on long and possibly dangerous journeys.

Finally, after I'd cut enough (and there was quite a few, I'll you tell you that now), Bombur told me that I could leave and he would do the rest. Smiling, I stood up and looked around. Dwalin, Balin and Thorin were on one side of the camp talking about something that looked serious, Gandalf was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed smoking his pipe, Bilbo was sitting looking quite depressed, and Bofur was telling everyone else a funny story that had them all laughing.

At the opposite end of the camp, I saw Fili and Kili. It seemed like Kili was talking to Fili about something that was making him uncomfortable, as he kept shaking his head and looking down. Thinking that I should leave them to it, I walked over to a spot on the side of the cliff, and leant against the wall closing my eyes.

"Miss Amaya." I looked up to see Bombur holding out a bowl of stew.

"Thanks, Bombur."

-8-

I hadn't moved from my place near the cliff except to give my bowl to Bombur for washing up and packing. Now I was on my own, I'd finally had a proper chance to think. Was it really only about two days ago that I was sat at home with my roommate watching TV? What would happen now that I was gone? Would I be classed as missing? Or would they think I was dead? I didn't have any family to worry about that would care, but I did have a few friends, and it was only now sinking in that I would probably never see them again. I would never finish my degree, or set up my own psychology clinic like I always wanted to do.

Very faintly, I heard a scream in the distance.

"What was that?" asked Bilbo.

"Orcs." Replied Kili, who was on watch along with his brother.

"Orcs?"

"Throat-cutters." Explained Fili. "There'll be dozens of them out there. The lowlands are crawling with them."

"They strike in the wee small hours, when everyone's asleep." Continued Kili. "Quick and quiet; no screams, just lots of blood." I heard them snigger before Thorin cutting in.

"You think that's funny? You think a night raid by orcs is a joke?"

"We didn't mean anything by it."

"No, you didn't. You know nothing of the world."

Not really listening to what was going on, and more caught up in my own thoughts, I wasn't aware that I was crying until Fili was crouching down in front of me.

"Amaya. Amaya, hey. Come on, it's ok. We were just joking, okay? And you know I'd protect you anyway, right?" Focusing on his face, I gave him a smile.

"It's fine. It's not your fault. I was just, I don't know, thinking. And I know that."

"Thinking about what?"

"Life. My life before this. How I'm probably never going to go back. All the things I'm going to miss. All the little things. It's stupid, just ignore me."

"Hey, listen to me. It's not stupid. You miss it, and it's finally sinking in, the shock of it all. Coming here. But it will get better." He rubbed his thumbs over my cheeks, wiping my tears away.

"Yeah, I know. You should never leave me alone with my own thoughts. It never results in anything good." I grinned.

Fili grinned back. "I'll keep that in mind. Now, come on. Me and Kili still have watch for another couple of hours, but we have a spare pack you can use to sleep. It'd be better if you slept nearer to someone; you still need training."

Lying down on the pack Fili had leant me, already falling asleep, I asked, "Will you train me?"

I heard him chuckle. "If you want me to."

-8-

A/N: okay! Not the best ending to a chapter ever, and it's taken me AGES to update, but here it is!

Please favourite and review!


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